Page 282 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8

And then Enzo surprised her again. Stepping away from her, he shed his linen trousers and stood before her bare.

She drank in every inch of moon-kissed skin, even more golden from their days at sea.

‘Show me what you want,’ he said. His voice was like gravel.

He was giving up control to her. Knowing exactly what she needed. Knowing she hadn’t ever truly had it in her life. Enzo, the man who controlled so much, could control the world if he had half a mind to, with all the power he was born to and had amassed on his own, was handing it to Charlotte. In that moment, when he had given her everything, Charlotte knew. Without any doubt at all, she knew in her soul that she loved Enzo. That there had never been another, never would be another person who she could love as much as she loved him.

Power coursed through her veins, Enzo’s pleasure the ultimate drug. Charlotte stepped up to him and with her finger on his chest, pushed him down onto the large, plush cushions that had been converted to a deck bed. He sat, watching her. She noticed his hand curling and uncurling into a fist to stop himself reaching for her. And holding his green flame gaze, she removed her bikini top and then bottoms—part of the sailing wardrobe that he had procured for her—slowly, letting them fall from her fingers.

A string of curses fell from his lips, and Charlotte smiled knowing that the moment his hands touched her, all this control would be lost. She would be drowning in him. She wanted to stretch this moment out, the anticipation building exponentially. The hunger in Enzo’s eyes growing. She craved the moment he lost control, pushed to the edge of sanity. Deliberately, with sure, slow steps, she walked to him. Knees sinking into the plush cushion, she straddled him.

‘You will be the death of me,’ he said in a strained whisper.

‘You are the life of me,’ she replied and kissed him hard and full. His arms snapped around her. His fingers travelling over her skin. Raising goose bumps and sucking the air from her lungs. And just as she knew would happen, all thought left her mind. Especially when Enzo’s hardness pressed against her core, and she ground her hips against him, making him swear loudly.

‘I need you. I can’t wait.’

She hovered above him, but just as he teased her entrance, he pulled away.

‘We don’t have protection. We need to go to the bedroom.’

‘No, I need you. I’ve only been with you,’ she said and felt his fingers press into her skin at the words. ‘And I’m on birth control.’ For once, Charlotte was thankful for the bane of hormone headaches. But even though she wanted him so badly she could weep with it, this choice was just as much Enzo’s as it was hers.

‘I’m clean too,’ he said. Charlotte already knew that since she dealt with his physicals, but being his PA was the last thing on her mind now.

Enzo had never wanted to be with someone like this so badly before. The trust Charlotte placed in him was beyond heady. As the head of one of the largest and oldest companies in the world, he was trusted by thousands of people, but that paled in comparison to the utter trust Charlotte put in him now. And when he slipped into her warm, wet core, he stopped breathing.

He wanted to pull her down on him, to slide into her over and over again. But she was in control. She needed it, and if she faltered, he would be there to make sure she only felt pleasure. So he threw his head back, muscles in his neck straining, as she slowly sunk onto the length of him.

‘Please look at me.’

His eyes snapped open before the command had even taken hold, so strong was the effect she had on him. When he was fully inside her, they moved together.

‘Heaven,’ he breathed against her shoulder, his teeth marking her. Just when he thought he would lose his mind, he felt her shudder. She needed him to take the reins so he moved her hands around his neck and held her tightly as he thrust into her, forcefully pulling cry after cry of pleasure from her until he could no longer tell his name from a moan, and a tingling took hold in the base of his spine. His body became a guitar string pulled too taut, the feeling of Charlotte pushing, shoving, rushing him to the edge, but he would not fall alone. Sliding his hand between their bodies, he teased her where she needed it most, and then she was right there with him.

‘Enzo, I’m going t—’ She couldn’t finish her sentence, but he understood because he was just as far gone.

‘Now,tesoro,’ he commanded, and they both plummeted over the edge in the most intense climax he had ever felt.

He couldn’t let go of Charlotte. He couldn’t pull out of her either. He wanted to stay in this moment for ever. A moment that had changed his world even though the world beyond them remained stubbornly the same. Nothing would ever be the same for him.

Charlotte placed her sweaty brow on his. He breathed her air. Held on to her slick skin. ‘Enzo, I—’

He didn’t let her finish that sentence, silencing her with a kiss into which he poured everything he felt. The gratitude for having her in his life. For seeing him, the man he was in private.

He pressed her back into the cushions. Lying over her, kissing her under a sky that was a tapestry of stars, floating alone at sea, he filled the embrace with all his lust and admiration and need to protect, knowing he wasn’t even close to the same man who had left Sydney.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ENZOHELDONto Charlotte until the first streaks of gold appeared on the horizon. The start of a new day. Another day that he wasn’t in Sydney.

This had turned into the most extraordinary trip. The best return to Italy he could remember, and Charlotte was the reason for that. Unfortunately, life beyond this yacht wouldn’t pause for ever. Their time away wrapped up in only each other was coming to an end.

He scooped Charlotte up as gently as he could and carried her to the master bedroom where he tucked her into the plush bedding and then stepped into the shower.

Powerful jets of water rained down on him, washing the salt and sweat off his skin. It wouldn’t be long until his crew returned, and when they did, he would have to instruct them to sail to Perlano. He had taken enough time to indulge in this maddening chemistry with Charlotte. Once he was assured all was settled with the lawyers, they would leave. He had responsibilities and a whole list of things to deal with once they were back in Australia.

He would move Charlotte to a more secure property, then get her to close all the bank accounts in various names and move the funds into ones in her own name. Changing her details at the office would be simple. It was time she stopped hiding and started living, and under Enzo’s protection she would be able to do just that. Perhaps he would move her someplace close to his own apartment. It would be a lot more convenient when they wanted to have sex.